126 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



tablishment of a well-equipped plant for the manufacture of the serum 

 and virus where a sufficient amount can be kept on nand to meet the 

 requirements of the farmers of the state; the manufacture, sale and 

 distribution of the product to be directly under the supervision of the 

 state veterinary surgeon and his assistants, which I believe to be the 

 only department that can properly police and safeguard the handling of 

 this most dangerous product. I hope this convention will speak out 

 freely and let the legislators know what you desire along this line. 



Our splendid agricultural college and the extension department are 

 doing a splendid work in teaching scientific agriculture; and through 

 the farmers' institutes and short courses this knowledge is being brought 

 within the reach of thousands of boys and girls w^ho could not otherwise 

 secure it. This work should be commended and encouraged not only 

 by this convention, but by the members of this organization individu- 

 ally, and I would suggest that a suitable resolution be passed by this 

 body. 



It again becomes my duty, as I view it, to *call your attention to the 

 very grave danger of live cattle and dressed meats being placed upon 

 the free list at the coming special session of congress. Year after year, 

 I have warned you against this danger to the live stock industry, and 

 now, as the time approaches for the calling of an extraordinary session 

 of congress to revise the tariff, because of the demand of the consum- 

 ing pub'.ic for cheaper meats, I apprehend that we must bestir ourselves 

 or our fears will become a vivid reality. With land worth $150 to $200 

 per acre being used to produce and fatten this live stock on, and with 

 high-priced feed and labor, it goes without saying that low^a farmers 

 can not compete in the markets with free cattle and free meats from 

 Mexico and the South American republics, where land has scarcely 

 any value, and where labor may be had for a mere pittance. 



We well know that from time to time representatives of great manu- 

 facturing interests have appeared before the congressional committee 

 on ways and means, and declared that if the tariff is reduced on their 

 products, they would be forced to reduce the w^ages of their employes. 

 And now the farmers and stockmen, who are paying the highest wages 

 of any class of employers of unskilled labor, are threatened with the 

 competition of free cattle and dressed meats from countries where labor 

 costs from one-half to three-fourths less than it does here, and land is 

 worth only about one-hundredth part of what it is in Iowa. And yet if 

 this condition is forced upon us, we can neither reduce the cost of labor 

 nor the price of land and feedstuffs which are necessary to produce the 

 cattle and the dressed meat. So on the narrow margin of profit that 

 the cattle feeders in the corn belt now receive, I can not see anything 

 but disaster and failure and going out of the business if live cattle and 

 dressed meats are placed on the free list; and I believe this organization 

 should be aroused as to this approaching danger and take the defensive 

 position that as long as this nation is committed to a tariff system, 

 either for protection or for revenue only, the farmers and stockmen are 

 entitled under such system to the same measure of benefits and pro- 

 tection as are accorded to the manufacturer of other products. Likewise 



